I've been working on a rough outline for two new classes that will each be one day long. One on professional development, trying to teach how to build a realistic personal development plan, how to fund books and classes, when and how to blog, when to change jobs, and more - the class I wish I could have had quite a ways back. I think that's a useful class and will be interesting to see how it turns out. Right now I see it as a class, but ultimately it may need to be closer to seminar if there is enough interest.

The managing class is really the same idea, the class I wish I had back in the beginning. Not exactly Management 101, not 'How to be a Great Leader', but a day long conversation about when, why, and how to make that first step into technical management, land mines to watch for, and a few tips for success (Tip #1, make sure your immediate supervisor is a great manager before you take the job). This is definitely more interactive than professional development, and I think will be a much smaller audience.

How much for the day long classes? Ah, that is the question. My first instinct is to just do them for free, call it 'marketing' but really just do it to earn some karma points that I'll surely need some day. But there's often a negative view taken of anything free, as in 'how good can it be if it's free?', so maybe doing it at $99 or $199 makes more sense. The other part is that I want to do these on a week day and anything free tends to draw both the 'good' attendees along with the 'let's get out of work today' crowd - the latter probably not contributing much to the karma pool.

I'll post a link when the final outlines are posted.

So would you go to one of these classes? What do you think about the free vs paid part? Comment, or drop me an email as you prefer.